From the desk of…
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Austin Film Festival Review ProGamer
It’s one thing to become obsessed with some aspect of nerd culture; it’s another to make a living from it. Such is the world of professional video game players as captured in ProGamer, a new film by Justin Agnew that explores this growing phenomenon.
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Austin Film Festival Review Funniest
Stand up comedy is an art form. It can’t be quantified. It can’t be judged. Oh, wait. It can, and it is all the time. Deep in the heart of Texas that means the annual Funniest Person in Austin contest, featured in the new documentary Funniest.
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Dave Hickey and Ed Ruscha The Holmes and Watson of Art
Wednesday night, the Harry Ransom Center and the Blanton Museum of Art will present a chat between two old friends. Ed Ruscha is an internationally renowned artist whose archives have been acquired by the center, and Dave Hickey is a Texas-born art critic who loves to talk, and especially loves to talk about art.
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Leftovers Premier at the Paramount Second Season Shot in Austin
At this point, Austin is no stranger to having television shows shot in the area. HBO’s The Leftovers, the latest entry to the list, showed off its wares Saturday night with the premiere of season 2.
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Tv Devoted Niche Vs Casual
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Goodbye to Mad Men Series Finale Sees Don Draper Off
If we are living in a new golden age of television, part of it ends Sunday night. From The Sopranos and The Wire to Breaking Bad and Mad Men, the past decade and a half has been pivotal in transitioning television from an also-ran to in many ways the superior of its silver-screen cousin, film.
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Aaron Franklin Man of the Hour
Aaron Franklin has had a very good month. On the heels of his first book (Franklin Barbecue) and the announcement of a new PBS series (BBQ With Franklin), Franklin was awarded one of the greatest accolades in all of food: the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: Southwest.
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SXSW: Peace Officer A Review
The documentary Peace Officer has an agenda. It meticulously demonstrates the militarization of police that has increased over the last 40 years. If it was only that, it would be nothing more than an effective piece of propaganda. But then there’s Dub.
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SXSW: The Grief of Others A Review
The death of a child is tragic beyond measure. Hollywood has mined this territory before, often with maudlin results, but Patrick Wang’s adaptation of Leah Hager Cohen’s novel The Grief of Others takes a more measured approach and is much the better for it.
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SXSW: Texas Shorts A Review
For a program based around a single geographic location, SXSW’s Texas Shorts is all over the map. Thematically speaking, that is. Filmmakers from the Lone Star State cover the gamut from silly to serious, from CGI animation to gritty street shots.